This was not my favorite of the Zapata books I’ve read so far, but I’m still giving it four stars because Zapata can do no wrong. It took some time to get into the bulk of the story and there was just a tad too much inner monologue. I will also say that this one is definitely her slowest of slow burns. At one point I wasn’t even sure if we’d get any pages to see the MCs as a couple and when I finished, I wished there were a few more chapters of Rip and Luna. Even though I didn’t find it to be her best work, the book was written in a way that made even interaction feel organic and natural. I’m excited to see Lenny, Luna’s best friend, get her own book.

Perfect book if you’re into:
-Grumpy male hero’s
-Mechanic shop setting
-Workplace romance
-Family drama
-Age gap

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4.75! Soooo good. A little long and repetitive, thats why I took off .25.

Definitely not Zapata's best work, but far from being her worst, with The Wall of Winnipeg and Me and Wait For It being her best and Lingus and Dear Aaron her worst, which isn't too bad, seeing as I rated both those books as 3's.

The one thing that truly got to me with this was just how clueless Luna was. The extent to which she goes to convince herself that Ripley doesn't care about her is just plain astonishing. Like hell, he starts calling her "baby girl" and cooking lunch for her every day and she's like, "This means nothing." She continues thinking this even after he kisses her.

That said, their chemistry was great, Zapata is still the queen of slow burn, everything is lovely. Can't wait to see what she dishes out next!

This was good, but it felt a lot like Under Locke and not the better version. I kind of felt that the conflict between the h and H was a bit overblown.

But still... I did melt a little (a lot) the first time he called her "baby" so I obviously bought in more than a little bit.

TDLR; not MZ's best but still pretty good

I adore this book!

I love how the author, Mariana Zapata describes trauma in this book. It is a sunshine x grumpy, but sunshine is very much an attitude and hope that Luna really works on having. She, in many ways, has a very childlike desperation for love, fear of being left, and in many ways avoids conflict and having to stand up for herself, all stemming from her childhood of abuse and neglect, and having to take care of everyone else first. She just wants someone to be there for her, like her for her, and not leave, because so many has decided she wasnt enough or for other reasons left or hurt her.

Zapata writes very realistic, because its not all happy endings. Dealing with people are hard, things damage relationships so they never can be what they were, and Zapata lets those things stay difficult and not fully resolved because that is real. I both love and hate that, I would love for everyone to overcome amd be happy and close again, but at the same time would that be so cheap when Zapata has spent so much time showing how these difficult relationships impact the characters, both as hurt and as growth.

Another strong book by Zapata, and despite the high page number, really didnt feel long, so never let that discourage you from picking up a book by her.